Iran gives jail terms to two students for protesting rapper’s death sentence

Motahare Goonei, a student activist and former secretary of the Islamic Association of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tehran, has been sentenced to one year in prison on charges of "propaganda against the state in favor of anti-revolutionary media."

Goonei announced on X on Wednesday that the verdict was related to her public statements, including her protest against the death sentence of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi.

Similarly, Khashayar Sefidi, a suspended music student at Tehran University, announced on Instagram that he was also sentenced to one year in prison for protesting Salehi's death sentence.

Both Goonei and Sefidi staged a sit-in protest in front of the Music House of Iran in April in opposition to Salehi’s verdict.

In addition, Sefidi went on a 72-hour hunger strike. He had previously been suspended from university for participating in the 2022 nationwide protests.

The two activists have been sentenced to prison one week after Iran’s Supreme Court overturned Salehi's death sentence, which had shocked millions of Iranians and human rights defenders, as well as politicians in the West.

Salehi had been sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in Esfahan in April this year on charges of "spreading corruption on Earth."

Initially sentenced to 6 years and three months in July 2023, Salehi was granted bail on November 18, 2023. However, less than two weeks later, the 32-year-old dissident rapper was re-arrested on new charges of "publishing falsehoods" after releasing a video detailing his torture experiences in custody.